Monday, October 1, 2007

SPEED Finally Commits To HD For 2008

Motorsports fans will finally get their wish now that SPEED has announced they will change over to all High Definition programming beginning in February of 2008.

This date makes sense, as most of the off-season programming the network shows in December and January has already been in the works. SPEED is going to launch this switch during Speed Weeks at Daytona, which is a great promotional time for them.

SPEED President Hunter Nickell said "SPEED already offers some of the most action-filled programming on television and the move to HD in 2008 enhances all of it exponentially." SPEED just topped the seventy million household mark, and is one of the most rapidly growing cable networks in North America.

Rick Miner, SPEED's Sr. VP of Production and Operations will be managing the project, which will continue in transition throughout the 2008 season. Obviously, the network has to completely change a ton of equipment that they currently have in place. This is especially true for NASCAR, where the TV trucks producing all the shows from the SPEED Stage are now rendered obsolete.

This is a big and positive move for SPEED, and its parent company Fox Cable Networks. Racing fans have been asking for this switch, and the network is now at a level of distribution where it can be accomplished. Ultimately, this may prove to be the most historic thing the network has done since its purchase by Fox in 2001.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below, or email editor@thedalyplanet.tv if you wish not to be published. Thanks again for taking the time to stop-by.

22 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I hope Dish Network puts it in their HD package promptly when it begins. I have ESPN, ESPN2 and TNT in HD now but the locals are not available in HD yet for me (small market). A race or football game in HD on a 52" TV makes my day.

Mr. Daly:A suggestion: for those of us unsavy about HD and stuck with a large number of analog TV sets - it might help if you could briefly explain in laymen's terms what HD is and what needs to be done with existing TV sets other than rushing out to buy a HDTV. We've all had enough pain this season and the thought that SPEED will no longer be available without spending big bucks may be enough to send some people over the edge! (I found the website www.dtv,gov somewhat helpful) Thanks again.Tom in Dayton, OH.

Anonymous said... My question is, If they are going HD, will DirecTV and others move Speed to the HD package only?

Bill H (aka BillWebz)

For Kicks - do we need to see Jimmy Spencer in High Defination?

October 1, 2007 6:24 PM

That would not make sense. That's just not how it works. It would be like my cable/sat provider taking away the standard FOX channel just because they added the HD version of the channel. To my knowledge you will get a standard SPEED channel and the HD channel. So you can chose if you want to see jimmy in HD.

I'm glad Speed is finally going to produce most of their Nascar programming in HD. In my area, Comcast has been pretty quick to add HD channels so I'm hoping they will add Speed to their lineup before speedweeks. For people who want an HD, get a Vizio. I have their 26" version and love it. They're one of the cheapest brands (price wise), but the quality is excellent.

SPEED in HD really will not matter to the majority of tv viewers. As others said, only Direct TV will have it initially. That is just a tiny tiny fraction of tv users across America that have Direct TV compared to the numerous cable compainies. My cable provider (whose service area includes the NASCAR and ISC corprate headquarters) has no plans at all to carry SPEED in their HD programming (nevermind the fact that they still do not carry the NFL Network channel). So this news from SPEED for most of us boils down to, "who cares, practically none of us will see it".

I suspect Dish Network will have Speed in HD pretty quickly. Dish currently has 39 HD channels plus locals (if available) in their HD package now. The HD channels that are not HD exclusive (such as TNT, Animal, ESPN, ESPN2, etc) are also available in analog.

For those of you that have yet to experience HD - you guys are really missing out! Everything in HD - resolution, picture size, color and sound quality is superior to the old analog tube sets.

As for Speed in HD, however, I doubt my cable supplier will bother to add it. Especially when they have yet to add their home-town network, The Golf Channel, in HD. And they won't even carry most of the 2007-08 Orlando Magic games due to a dispute with Fox Sports Net.

The non-HD speed channel will still be available for those people that do not have HDTVs. The requirments to view an HD signal are an HD capable TV to view it on and an HD receiver to receive the signal. If you don't have both of those than you will NOT be able to view the HD channel.

DIrecTV lists Speed HD as coming by the end of October. Earlier this year, Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that F1 would broadcast in HD in 2007. As there is only 1 race left this year, perhaps we should keep our fingers crossed that the Brazilian GP will be broadcast on Speed in high definition.